Download pluto`s demotion to `dwarf planet`

PLUTO’S DEMOTION
TO ‘DWARF PLANET’
by
Evolutionary Astrologer Donna Lee Steele
On August 24, 2006, 424 Astronomers met at the International Astronomical Union
in Prague and voted to reclassify the planet Pluto to the new status of ‘dwarf
planet.’ Lately, friends and clients have been asking what this apparent
‘demotion’ of Pluto by the IAU means from an astrological point of view. The
short answer is, not much!
Often when I do public presentations or work with a new client, I explain that
astrology is both a science and an art. The science part has to do with the
mathematical chart calculation. This process creates the ‘map’ of the positions of
the planets that astrologers call a horoscope. The origin of the word horoscope is
Latin and literally means ‘study of the hour.’ Studying a chart involves
interpretation of the meaning of the positions of the planets. Interpretation is the
art of astrology.
Astronomy concerns itself only with the study of the physical characteristics of
celestial bodies like the origin, location, size and speed of a planet as well as what
it’s made of like carbon or silica or gaseous elements. Astronomy does not
recognize any meaning associated with heavenly bodies.
For decades now, primarily due to the work of the Jet Propulsion Labs in
California, we know the exact position of the planets at every given moment in
time. So calculating a chart is a very precise, mathematical, and therefore
scientific, procedure.
Astrology on the other hand, concerned with the study of the meaning of the
placements and movements of heavenly bodies, is entirely comprised of empirical
knowledge that has been collected over the last 8000+ years through the simple
act of observation and correlation. Astrologers understand the meaning of
planets, signs and houses and what they are associated with by watching the
movements and cycles of the planets and observing what human events occur
simultaneously and coincide with those movements. This is also why, for
example, when a new planet is discovered it may take many years or even
decades of observation and correlation for astrologers to discern the meaning of
that planet and what earthly events it is associated with or ‘rules.’
For most of astrology’s history, astrology and astronomy went hand in hand and in
fact were inseparable. However, with the introduction of ‘scientific reasoning’ in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an effort associated with diminishing the
stranglehold the Church and it’s faith-based (not fact-based) religious tenants had
over most human beings, astrology and astronomy become separate fields of
study. For while astronomy is a body of knowledge that could be mathematically
and therefore scientifically proven, astrological interpretation at that time was
completely unproven scientifically. Only recently, particularly through the work
of Michael and Francoise Gauquelin, who performed an enormous amount of
astrological research at the Sorbonne University in Paris in the 1950’s and 1960’s,
was the accuracy of astrological interpretation statistically validated achieving a
threshold of logic and reason associated with science.
So when astronomers recently ‘demoted’ Pluto from its previous status as a
planet, this change in classification had absolutely no affect whatsoever on the
meaning of Pluto associated with astrological interpretation. After all, the planets
in our solar system all have very different physical/astronomical characteristics.
Astrologically, they also each correlate with different human experiences that
won’t change simply because astronomers decide to change its scientific label.
So Pluto’s demotion doesn’t make a bit of difference to astrologers -- even
Evolutionary Astrologers who interpret Pluto as the planet associated with the
Soul and an individual’s Soul path and purpose in any given lifetime.
Astrologically, Pluto still has to do with spiritual, evolutionary growth and the
transformational events that profoundly change us by stripping away the old and
outworn ways that no longer serve us. Like the Phoenix, its powerful energy is
associated with the cycle of life, death and rebirth that reveals the truth, affects
healing and brings rejuvenation as we journey along the path of spiritual
evolutionary growth.
Many Blessings,
Donna
Copyright 2007 for Threshold Consulting and Donna Lee Steele.
All rights reserved. Excerpted from Heavenly Help Newsletter February 2007.